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1. Theatrical performances and pre-cinema inventions
first theatre performances based on the use of light appeared in the Ancient Greece. Thanks to philosophical dialogues by Plato we learn about the moving shadows of people which were cast on the walls of a cave by the light of fire. Some film historians consider that description of the cave as the first mentioning of moving figures. puppeteers from Asian countries organized their performances using the light and shade in order to project the silhouettes of the puppets on the translucent screen. Such performances had a great popularity even in the XVIIIth century in Europe. In the 1780s a Scotsman Robert Barker contrived a new optical attraction which was called Panorama. Artificial highlight made it possible to animate big linens with the images of city streets or war battles. At the same time Philip James de Loutherbourg invented Eidophusikon, in other words the theatre of effects, in which special highlighter made pictures seem three-dimensional. Another significant invention belongs to Louis Daguerre and Charles Bouton. It is Diorama that helped them to create Diorama Theatres. The people there were amazed by kaleidoscopic interchange of images. Though all these inventions are essential on the way to inventing cinematography, the most important one (and the most popular at the same time) in pre-cinema history was the Magic Lantern. So we see that people were always interested in moving colourful pictures and they used different means and techniques before the cinematography was invented.later the inventors of moving pictures resorted to the help of photographs. They made a lot of experiments trying to create the illusion of motion. They made it up when they assayed multiple shooting. That conjecture gave them a chance of making a series of images and then putting them into the right order that while riffling there appeared an illusion of their moving. But the really great invention, the first camera, was made by Thomas Edison and his assistant William Dixon. Everything that has already been said refers to the first inventions that preceded the appearance of a movie camera and cinematography as well. Now it is necessary to pass on to substantial part of the described performances which were converted to the first films. It would be rather useful to look at the condition of the theatrical art in the USA in order to find out in what ways it served as a source of ideas and experience for the early cinema.about the USA, by the beginning of the XXth century there was neither national theatre, nor national dramatic art that could be compared to the European ones. Owing to this fact a playwright becomes a stage manager and in the end takes the functions of director.history of the American dramatic art begins with David Belasco. He followed the example of Dion Boucicault who at the end of the XIXth century arrived in America from England and was the first to enlarge the powers of a stage manager. He not only gave instructions to the actors but also wrote the scenes and that allowed him to edit the works of other dramatists. But the fact is that the American theatre remained behind the European one for several decades. That gap was reduced only in the 1910s.for David Belasco, it should be said that he came to New York in тисяча вісімсот вісімдесят дві and became famous very fast. He began his career at the theatre when the stage was designed by badly painted backdrops with trite landscapes. All the decorations were made of cardboard in rough-and-ready fashion. He was the first who thought about the decorations on the stage and tried to make them true to life. Approximately the same situation would happen with the early cinema. The first films were primitive and often contained unreal and even absurd scenes. Many years would pass before the cinematography became more realistic and describe people s everyday incidents and problems.
. The development of cinematography
to Edison s invention, the motion picture camera, the cinematography appeared in the USA. The potential of that camera was rather limited as it showed only short-length films and the plots usually were very primitive. People could not enjoy such films for a long time, they were demanding for new ways of attraction, more interesting and complicated films. Once they were excited by the arriving train they could not be stricken by it many more times again. The cinematography was dumb in its first years, it is a well-known fact, and several years would be necessary to make it speaking. But then the directors had to introduce something new in their films so they turned to the previous art forms to find there some ideas.first simple and elementary way was making into a movie some theatrical performances and variety shows. It also allowed to increase the...
